


Color Me Like Chems

by Clankit



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Color Blindness, F/M, I'll delete these tags when I update next, Incomplete, Mentions of Nate/OFC but not actually, Mentions of OFC/OFC, More characters to come, Never done this AU, Not Beta Read, On an unofficial hiatus, Slow Burn, Wish me luck, mentions of oc, okay I haven't updated this for a year but it's not dead I swear, please comment the author needs validation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-06 15:36:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5422478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clankit/pseuds/Clankit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nora never minded she wasn’t Nate’s soulmate. Not that much, at least. It was just the way things happened. After all, he could still describe colors to her. She just couldn't see them.</p><p>Or, the soulmate AU where you can't see colors until you meet your soulmate (but in this version you keep them after they die) with Hancock and female sole survivor that no one asked for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. red (like jet)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the dialogue isn't on point, but as I was rereading this chapter I decided to post it anyways. Sorry if the writing seems rough, I've never done one of these AUs before.

Nora never minded she wasn’t Nate’s soulmate. Not that much, at least. It was just the way things happened. After all, he could still describe colors to her. She just couldn't see them.

“Describe the color brown to me.” she asked, her head in his lap. She stared at his eyes, which were of course gray. But when he looked at hers, he could see the color in them.

Nate hummed, playing with her hair. “Well… It’s the color of your eyes.”

She laughed, and playfully swatted his leg. He always seemed to be able to read her thoughts.“Really, though.”

“Well, it’s warm. Nice. Just like you.” he leaned down and kissed her nose. “It’s the color of hope. For me, at least. The smell of baking bread. The color of chocolate. It’s the color of coco, the feeling of being wrapped in a warm blanket.”

He paused for a second to cup her face with both of his hands.

“It’s the color of your hair, too. The color of my eyes and hair as well. It’s my favorite color, you know. Brown, the color of your eyes.” she already knew all this, of course, but she liked hearing it again. She would almost certainly never get to see color, as she hoped she would always be with Nate. She loved him and he loved her. Her soulmate would have to understand that, if she ever met them.

“Mmmm.” She sat up, and snuggled her back against his chest, letting him warm her up. “What about yellow?”

He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on hers. “It’s… the color of the sun. The happiness I feel when I wake up next to you. The brightness of Shaun’s smile.”

Even if she couldn’t see it, she could feel his smile. “It’s the color of joy, really. What I feel every time I look at you.” He sighed in happiness, and Nora smiled as well. She shuffled out of his grip and turned to face him, and pulled him into a kiss.

He pulled away for a second, just so he could make sure he was setting his hands on her hips, and he kissed her again. After a couple more minutes of this, including both Nate and Nora losing their shirts, they migrated to their bedroom. Thank god Shaun was napping and Codsworth was at the shop getting repaired from a hot cup of coffee being spilled on him.

Later, as they lay in bed together, Nora tracing the outline of Nate’s lips, she asked for him to describe another color. “Can you describe red for me, please?”

He laughed. “Why do you always ask for red last?” It was true. Practically every other day she asked Nate to describe different colors, but she always saved red for last.

“It’s my favorite color.” She stopped the tracing of his lips to fondle his hair and snuggle closer to him. She inhaled when he exhaled, and vice versa. They were sharing the air space. “So?”

“It’s… the color of romance. The color of love. The color of the roses I buy you every other Saturday. The color of those earrings and that dress you wear.” he kissed her. “The color of your favorite lipstick, Scarlet Starlet. The color that makes you dance, the color that people look for in the dark, the welcoming embrace of red, warm yet cool, pleasant yet deep.” he chuckled. “No wonder it’s your favorite.”

She chuckled along with him, and together, wrapped in a red blanket, they slept the night away.

As she runs, looking back at Nate who is carrying Shaun, the world isn’t red.

It’s black.

The world’s always gray, to be fair, but this time, it’s black.

The world is ending. The bombs are falling. She’ll never see the outside again, not once she goes inside the vault. As she looks out at the world, about to follow Nate up the trail, she realizes she forgot to bring anything red with her. They’ll probably have something in the vault, but it won’t be the same.

Right before she's about to step inside the whatever chamber, Shaun starts crying again. Nate whispers words of comfort to him, but Shaun doesn't let up. "Honey? Could you help me?" Nate asks desperately.

Nora walks over and almost takes him out of Nate's arms, but by the expression of his face he isn't about to let go of his son. So Nora just leans down and gently grabs his little baby hand. "Who's my favorite little guy? Mommy's not going far, I'll just be over here." she kisses his hand, leaving a faint imprint of gray lipstick, although Nate would see it as red.

When Nora slips into her vault suit, she turns to Nate expectantly. "It's blue." he says. Whenever Nora picks out her clothing for the day, she always asks Nate what colors she is wearing. Even down here in the vault, she wants to look fashionable. _Old habits die hard, I suppose. They'll be gone soon enough._

When she can see again, after the sheet of white ice covering the window fades just enough for her to look outside, it was a surprise to see two strange figures looking at Nate, who is still frozen.

"This is the one. Here." the woman points at Nate, and Nora wants to scream, to shout, to say "What the hell are you doing?!", but she can't move her lips, so all she does is watch silently.

"Open it." the man says. His voice is grating and rough.

The pod door lifts up, and despite the situation Nora still feels joy at the fact that her husband and son are okay. They're alive. Nate coughs a couple times, gasping "Is it over?" while Shaun has started crying again. Nora wants to take both of them into her arms, but she can't. Nora imagines the experience is even more terrifying for Nate, who can see everything that is happening in clear brisk color. "Are we okay?"

"Almost. Everything's going to be fine." Nora doesn't trust him in the slightest.

Her fears double when the female in what Nora supposes is something similar to a rad suit starts to reach for Shaun. "Come here. Come here baby." she coos.

"No wait. No wait! I've got him!" Nate protests feebly, weak from their extended suspension in ice. Although Nora may know she's not the best scientist, she does know that whatever they've been doing to them is highly illegal and ill-moral.

"Let the boy go." the man growls, pulling a gun out and pointing it at Nate. "I'm only gonna tell you once!"

"I'm not giving you Shaun!" Nate sounds stronger now, and Nora hates herself for the part of her that whispers _let him go. Let Shaun go, it'll be okay._

The shot rings throughout the vault, and deep into Nora's ears.

"Goddamit! Get the kid out of here, and let's go..." the man walks over to her chamber, and Nora wants to spit in his face, right into his ugly fucking face and his scarred eye. "At least we still have a backup."

As the cold returns, there are no colors. There is no red, or blue, or brown, or yellow. There's nothing except gray, except gray and harsh cold reality that she’ll never get to experience colors again, in any way at all.

Silent tears slip down from Nora's eyes as she enters the frozen sleep again.

Nora stumbles out back into the world, the grays even darker now.

One of the first thing Nora does, when she exits the vault and gets to Sanctuary, is talk to Codsworth, of course. But right after that, she digs through the ashes in her old home, and clutches her Scarlet Starlet and cries.

Nate had always wanted a dog. Nora had said no, saying that maybe when Shaun was a bit older and they were more ready. He had argued that they were loyal and beautiful, but went along with her anyway. Although when Nora meets Dogmeat, and sees the contrasting shades of gray on his coat, even though it looks a lot worse compared to the real thing, it still is one of the prettiest things Nora has seen so far in this desolate wasteland.

Preston Garvey’s hat is brown. No, it's still gray. But it's also brown. Not really, though.

She doesn’t know how she realizes it, but she just does. She thinks for a second, maybe Preston is the one, that maybe the first part of seeing colors is you automatically know what color an object is. But the rest of the world is still gray, and she never even touched Preston's skin with her own. The hat is still gray. She just… knows that it is brown. Later, when she's looking at shards of broken glass from a car window a raider shot through and sees her eyes, she realizes that Preston's hat is the exact same shade of gray that Nate's eyes were.

The raiders don't know what hit them.

Later, when she finds a color dictionary and compares the two shades, she sees, yep, she was right, it’s brown, or more specifically the shade beige. But… how could she tell?

As she looks at her vault suit, and realizes that it’s probably a deep blue, she shuts the color dictionary and shoves it into her pack. It’s heavy and clunky, but it’s worth it. The colors hold memories. She doesn't bother to check the color of her vault suit, though. The only reason she's still wearing it is because it's the best piece of underclothing out of all the stuff she's found. Nora hates it. She wants as little to do with Vault-Tec as possible.

Later, as she finally works it up to go and scavenge a raider’s body, as she had always made Preston do it, she looks at the places where she shot them. They’re very bloody. The color of blood is red.

She turns and retches before pulling off some bullets and a combat knife from the dead raider.

When she’s shooting feral ghouls, who she learned from Preston had been people except instead of turning into normal ghouls (whatever the hell those were) their brains rotted away, all she can think about is if they can see color.

When she rescues Nick Valentine, the first words out of her mouth are “Can you see color?” quickly followed by a “I’m sorry. But… what are you?”

He raised a fake eyebrow at her, and sighed. “To answer your first question, no, I can’t see color, just like any other human before they’ve met their soulmate. I’m a Synth. Synthetic human. Name is Nick Valentine. But I’m more interested in who you are, and why you’re busting me out of this place.”

Later, she finds out that while he can’t see color, he can tell what color objects are, and she asks him to point out things that are a particular extravagant shade of red if he sees anything. Of course, she’ll just see gray, but still.

When she goes to kil— _meet_ Kellogg, the first thing he says to her face to face is “I like the blue on you, kid. Looks nice.”

She almost shoots his head off right then, because _a fucking murderer and kidnapper found his soulmate but I haven’t found mine_?

She did blow his head off later, of course. Watched the blood pool from his body.

She’s not sure if red is her favorite color anymore.

When she steps into Goodneighbor and almost immediately someone steps up and starts badgering her, she’s not too happy. She’s had a rough day, and she does not want to deal with this guy right now.

She was about to tell him to buzz the hell off, when a weird as hell looking guy walked up, and it took Nora a couple seconds to realize he must be a ghoul.

“Whoa, whoa, time out. Someone steps through that gate for the first time, they’re a guest. You lay off the extortion crap.”

“What’d you care? She ain’t one of us.” he sneers, and Nora was sure even in color his face would look ugly.

“No love for your mayor, Finn? I said let her go.” his voice was raspy but nice. Made Nora think of the color orange. A little weird, not her favorite shade of gray, but still nice.

“You’re soft, Hancock. You keep letting outsiders walk all over us, one day there’ll be a new mayor.”

“Come on, man. This is me we’re talking about.” the ghoul walked forward, and Nora wasn’t sure what he was going to do, until he pulled out a knife and stabbed the man, several times, right in the gut. He definitely wouldn’t be getting up after that.

But Nora was more interested in the ghoul. He just… stood there, not moving. The knife in his hand, dripping with blood, the most vibrant red Nate had said he'd ever seen, and that he saw it all the time in the war. He was staring at the body below him. He looked menacing, powerful. A dictator. Someone to be feared and respected. Nora shuddered inwardly.

Then the moment passed, and he scoffed as he looked down at the man’s body. “Now why’d you have to go and say that, huh? Breaking my heart over here.” he slipped the knife out of sight, not even bothering to wipe the red— to wipe the blood off it. He turned to her, and Nora startled at his welcoming expression. “You alright, sister?"

She nodded, not saying anything, just staring at him. Dogmeat barked behind her, and she was glad she chose to leave Preston behind on this particular mission. Almost brought Nick with her, but she had missed her little shepherd. And no matter how much Nora liked Piper, she wasn’t sure if her brash attitude would be right for fighting the horrors of the wasteland. But she wouldn’t know until she tried bringing her along.

The ghoul seemed to take her nod as a sign to continue. “The name’s Hancock, and this here is Goodneighbor. Goodneighbor is of the people, for the people, you feel me? Everyone’s welcome.”

 _Except guys like the one laying on the ground._ “I feel you.” she smiled nervously.

“Looks like we’re going to get along just fine. If you’re looking for work, talk to me later. I might have something for you.” as soon as he had walked a couple steps away, Nora let out a sigh of relief. She didn’t fear Hancock, per say, but she was a bit uneasy around him. Probably partially because he was a ghoul.

Nora shook her head to clear her thoughts. No way she was going to prejudice anyone. She could dislike Hancock, but only for who he was, not what he looked like. She had had enough of that back in her own time, where almost every time she told someone she was going to become a lawyer they laughed in her face, because women of course couldn’t be lawyers. She had proved them wrong, though. And she certainly had proved a lot of other people wrong just by handling a gun and knowing when and how to use it.

She shouldered her combat rifle and headed towards the general store. She needed a drink to clear her thoughts, and storekeepers usually were ready to gossip once you bought something. She needed to restock her food supplies anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've only marked this fic as Mature as a precaution. The rating may change to Teen. Also, if I can't think of more catchy chapter names I may just have none at all. We'll find out. 
> 
> Also, you can actually comfort Shaun if you didn't immediately enter the pod. I only found this out because I decided to replay the game to make sure the dialogue was right, even though the dialogue in this chapter isn't.


	2. blue (like her vault suit)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hancock had always known he was the handsomest guy in Diamond City, but hadn’t even bothered to check what color his hair was or what color his eyes were, as all the other kids had done when they were young, and he waved people away when they tried to tell him. Those facts had always just seemed unimportant to him.

Hancock had always known he was the most handsome guy in Diamond City, but hadn’t even bothered to check what color his hair was or what color his eyes were, as all the other kids had done when they were young, and he waved people away when they tried to tell him. Those facts had always just seemed unimportant to him.

After all, he could still easily get women into his bed with a hair flip and a quick wink of his eyes. Why should what color they were matter? Everything was gray, and everything would always be gray. What was the point of lusting after colors when there was so many other things to do, like chems and people?

He would never see colors. He knew that. Colors were stupid. Soulmates were stupid. His soulmate was probably stupid. He was stupid. Everything was stupid.

One time, he slept with someone who had met their soulmate only to lose them two days later. As they lay in bed, panting, he turned to her, and asked what he looked like.

She looked at him, and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. “Your—” she heaved in a breath, before breathing it out and restarting in a clearer voice. “Your hair is blond.”

“What’s blonde like?” usually, he hated cuddling. He would let the person (or people if he was feeling extra frisky) sleep in his room, but then they had to go. He knew he was an asshole, but that didn’t mean he had to be a rude asshole. But, this time, he might let her stay a little longer.

“It’s the color of the sun. Bright, burning. It’s the color yellow, but lighter. It’s rare to find anything that’s a shade of yellow that isn’t smothered in layers of dirt, but your hair seems to have survived.” She ran her hand through it again, pulling out a strand and letting it fall in front of his face. “It suits you. It’s bright, but not too bright. Easy on the eyes, for most people.”

Before he could stop himself, he blurted out, “What’s your favorite color?” he bit his lip. That was a rather personal question. He didn’t do personal. They could be friends, sure, but he wasn’t looking for a romantic relationship. Probably never would be. The local doctor said he had a problem with forming permanent attachments, but Hancock didn't think so. The guy was a medical doctor, not a shrink. There had been one girl he had dated for an entire week. Wasn't that long enough?

Didn’t mean he couldn’t have sex, though.

If the girl felt any surprise at being asked such a personal question, she didn’t show it. She simply hummed, and ceased running her hand through his hair to prop herself up on an elbow and find her discarded shirt laying off the bed to the right. She pulled it up onto the bed and showed it to him.

“My favorite color is green.” she chuckled, but he just stared at her questioningly.

“What’s so funny?”

“Green is a pretty rare color.” she explained. “It used to be all around us, actually. It was one of the most common colors, before the war. It’s the color of nature. The color of bushes, trees, plants, grass… Not many of those around anymore.” she sighed softly. “I always keep this shirt as clean as I can. I was lucky to find a shirt so close to the color of her eyes.” she hugged it to her bare chest, and a couple of silent tears slid down her face.

Judging by the strong emotional reaction, this ‘she’ had probably been her soulmate who had died. He quickly sat up and wrapped an arm around her. He didn’t want her to feel bad. “Um, hey, what color are my eyes?” he prompted, awkwardly trying to change the subject.

She turned and studied him carefully, before wiping her tears with the t-shirt. She sniffled once, before looking back up at him and then staring at his eyes. Not into them. There was a difference. She was looking at the eyes, not the person behind them.

“They’re.. blue. A rather beautiful shade of blue, actually.” she blinked, and frowned for a second. “Your eyes. They’re beautiful. They’re the sky one of the few times it actually looks good. They’re the exact shade of a river completely free of radiation, like the ones in old pictures. They’re the color of jazz music, the feel of velvet on your fingertips.” she leaned closer to him, still staring, but now in amazement, at his supposedly beautiful eyes.

“What, you trying to become a poet?” he laughed nervously.

She rested her head against his chest, and in a couple moments she was asleep. He lay back down and cradled her head, letting himself slowly drift off as well.

When he woke, and she was gone, gone not just from his bedroom but from the town, he was surprised by how much he cared.

He didn’t hook up with anyone for a while, even though he had plenty of opportunities. He partially wish he had, because instead he had to watch as his brother sent ghouls to their death, with nothing to distract him. He was surprised that his brother couldn’t see colors. After all, it seemed he had found his true love. Power.

Shortly after leaving Diamond City, when he found the radiation drug, the one he knew would change him forever, he hesitated. Not because he was afraid of taking it, which he was, but… because of his eyes. All ghoul eyes were just one pure color. There was no telling what color his eyes would be if he took the drug, but they definitely wouldn’t stay the same.

He, himself, hated his eyes. Well, he disliked himself in general, but he specifically hated his eyes. To this day, he remembered the girl who could see colors. And she had said his eyes were truly beautiful. And that didn’t make sense. Someone like him, who had let innocent people be slaughtered, didn’t deserve to have beautiful eyes.

Didn’t matter anymore. He had found her body a couple months ago. So he inserted the drug into his arm and let himself just ride the waves.

Didn’t stop him from punching the first mirror he looked into, though, when he saw what his eyes had become.

As he watched Vic swing from the balcony, he wasn’t smiling. But when he improvised his catchphrase, “Of the people, for the people!” he said as he raised his knife in the air, and heard the crowd cheer below, he was. If you could feel colors, he thought, right now I would be feeling blue. He felt blue because of the ones he failed to save, because of the people he let get killed, but he also felt blue because things were changing, and that was good. That was wonderful. That was beautiful. That was blue.

When he saw Finn walk towards the newcomer, he rolled his eyes. He had had enough of Finn and his ‘hur hur hur look at me I’m the big bad wolf’ crap. Time to take out the trash (Also, He really needed to ask Daisy if there was a sequel to Little Red Riding Hood. It had been a good book, and Hancock had liked the pictures).

He strolled forward, and was impressed when the newcomer barely flinched at the sight of a ghoul. Sure, the smoothskins around here were used to it, but most people weren’t. He focused his attention back on Finn, and put on some of his charm. Wouldn’t hurt to make a good impression on the newcomer before he stabbed Finn. Or at least, he’d probably end up stabbing Finn, but who knows.

“Whoa, whoa, time out. Someone steps through that gate for the first time, they’re a guest. You lay off the extortion crap.” he smiled broadly, and rolled his eyes mentally as Finn sneered.

“What’d you care? She ain’t one of us.” Finn growled at him.

 _The whole point of this town is for it to be for everyone, dumb ass._  “No love for your mayor, Finn? I said let her go.”

“You’re soft, Hancock. You keep letting outsiders walk all over us, one day there’ll be a new mayor.”

Hancock almost burst out laughing, because the thought that he would let someone walk over him was ridiculous. He had let that happen too many times, and he was determined to make sure it never happened again. But he didn’t say that, and instead simply said “Come on, man. This is me we’re talking about.”

He took a couple strides forwards, and plunged his knife deep into Finn’s gut. He drew it back out and repeated the motion several times, before letting Finn’s body fall to the ground. For a moment he stood there, breathing heavily, just staring down at Finn’s body. He never liked killing people he knew. Preferred to just either kill them as soon as he saw them or no killing at all. Oh well.

He sheathed his knife and almost stuck out his hand for them to shake, but held it back. They probably wouldn’t want to shake hands with a ghoul, much less one who had just stabbed someone. “You alright, sister?”

They nodded, just looking at him. Hancock waited a couple of seconds, to see if they were going to say anything, but they didn’t. Hancock mentally shrugged. Some folks were just naturally quiet, or maybe she had had her tongue cut out. Who knew.

“The name’s Hancock, and this here is Goodneighbor. Goodneighbor is of the people, for the people, you feel me? Everyone’s welcome.” he winced inwardly. Stabbing someone before greeting a newcomer was probably not the best way to give that impression.

For a second, Hancock thought she was just going to nod again, but after a couple of beats she said “I feel you.” she smiled, and Hancock softened a little. They seemed new to the commonwealth, judging from their vault suit. Of course, some people might look at him a little funny at him with his tricorn hat and frock coat, but he knew he looked good. Literally. He had asked a couple passing through town what color his clothes were and they told him he looked good with the black hat and red coat. He hadn’t asked them about what color his eyes were, of course.

“Looks like we’re going to get along just fine. If you’re looking for work, talk to me later. I might have something for you.” It was the least he could do, really. Offer some work and in return give her caps.

  
He turned around and walked away from her, and vaguely wondered what color a vault suit was.


	3. gray (like ash)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora glanced around The Third Rail as she stepped inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to a wonderful friend for looking over this and making many helpful edits before I released this!

Nora glanced around The Third Rail as she stepped inside. She had heard from the store owner Daisy, that this was the best place to get a drink. also acquiring an overdue library book from her, which she had promised to return to the Boston Library for her at a later date. She sure wasn't looking forward to facing those super mutants...

A ghoul dressed in a clean tux was guarding the entrance into the bar, and he sighed as she entered. ”Newcomers are welcome.” he gestured towards the stairs. “But you’ll have to leave your dog here.” Nora glanced nervously at Dogmeat, who woofed in reassurance.

She exhaled deeply, heading down the stairs into the bar.

Different shades of gray, black and white flooded Nora’s visions as different colored lights (she assumed) flared. Someone was singing, and Nora paused for a second to listen the tone of the music.

“So we're glad you dropped by...

Come in and loosen up your tie,

Have a drink or maybe just one more...

But if you're searchin', for something to bring you comfort,

Oh well, I'm the one you're lookin' for.”

Nora sighed and let the music resonate in her ears before smiling. Stopping at the bottom of the stairs, she enjoying the sweet sounds that echoed throughout the entire room.. She was glad that even after an atomic bomb, live music was still around. Remembering that Nate  would often take her to dinner shows and he’d point at different things and tell her what color they were. Of course, now it was different, but she could still have fun.

Making her way up to the bar, she sat on a stool, ignoring the feeling of almost everyone in the bar ogling at her.  Instead she looked at the Mister Handy working the bar expectantly. It’s mechanical eyes whirred as it eyed her, cleaning a glass with a rag with one of its limbs. “Oi. We got beer. And if you ain’t buying beer, you ain’t buyin.” ah, so a male robot with a cockney accent. Nice.

Someone called out  “Charlie, refill!” and the bot hovered over, pouring the guy another drink before returning to Nora.

“Well?” he asked. “You gonna get something or not?”

Nora shrugged, and nodded. Mechanical claws set a beer on the table. Nora vaguely noticed that the singing stopped, and wondered if she would get a chance to compliment the singer on her talents.

He was just about to tell her the price, when a voice from behind her said “On the house, Charlie.” Nora jumped and turned to see Mayor Hancock smiling at her.

Charlie looked like he was going to protest as much as a robot could express any emotion, but then simply turned away. Nora raised an eyebrow and took a sip of the already opened beer bottle as the owner of the voice slid into the open seat to her left.

“Nice to see you again, Mayor Hancock.” he smiled, and Nora barely stopped herself from shuddering. He seemed nice enough, but he had killed a guy in front of her eyes before even saying a word to her. Given, the guy was an asshole, but his presence  still gave her goose bumps. Pulling out a cigarette box, he offered her one with a silent gesture, but she replied with a polite shake of her head. She fought hard to give them up, and wasn’t about to start again for no good reason. Feeling the impending urge to smoke, she felt she would soon give in, but for now, she would keep her promise to Nate.

Shrugging it off, he pulled out a silver flip lighter. “We don’t usually get new faces in town that aren’t looking to sell or buy.” he said as the flame burned the end of the cigarette. He brought it to his lips— no, not lips, he had none. His mouth, and puffed out a cloud of gray smoke. Nora let out a partial sigh; there was enough gray in the world, and she wouldn’t be lying if she said it was a little depressing that some things were actually gray. Like buying a ticket to an amusement park and waiting in line for five hours for a ride only to get to the front and then finding out half the ride had been the waiting.

"Well, this is one of the few times you did." Nora nodded, giving a fabricated smile. Sure, Nora loved being nice and helping out, but she could hold her own. Nate had always said she was too sarcastic for her own good. Before the war, people were real sensitive about that kind of stuff,  but here she could do whatever she wanted.

Hancock hummed, puffing out another breath of smoke. "Whatever you say. You still interested in that work I told you about?" he smiled again. Nora noticed that he seemed to be smiling an awful lot at her. More than he usually did, or at least more than most people would… It was almost like he was… _flirting_ with her.

She shook her head. No, he couldn't be.

"No? You're not interested?" he cocked his eyebrow, tapping the ash off his cigarette and letting it fall onto the counter. “That’s a shame.”

"No, wait! I am! I am interested!" wow, that sounded wrong. Judging by his smirk, he seemed to get the innuendo of what she said too. "I am interested in the job." she was happy to take any work she could get.

"Alright then. There's this place, Pickman Gallery. I sent a small team over, but they haven't come back. I need you to go over there and check it out. You feel? Simple scouting job. "

Raising an eyebrow, she  took another sip of her beer. "If it's such a simple scouting job, why don't you do it?"

He sighed. "I would, but I'm the mayor. My town needs me." for a second, he sounded almost... wistful. Like he wasn’t entirely sure of what he was saying. But that didn't matter.

"How many caps?" Nora might’ve done it for free when she first came out of the vault, but now? She knew she should take any caps she could get.

"How about.... 150?" he swept the ash that had been gathering on the counter into his hand, putting the small pile into his pocket. Nora frowned at this rather strange gesture, before raising her eyes back up to his. Nora hummed, mulling over his offer. 150 was good for a scouting job, but she could use a little more. She didn’t actually need it, but other people might.

"Not enough to cover the risks. 200."

"Fair enough. Shake on it?" Hancock stuck out his hand. Nora reached for it with her own, and—

the sound of glass breaking caught her attention. Nora immediately whipped around to see who had been sneaking up on her— well, not sneaking. A drifter had sat down to the right of her, and when Charlie gave them a beer, they tried to lift it up to their mouth, but instead it smashed to the floor.

Charlie swore loudly. "You're paying for that." the drifter grinned sheepishly.

Nora sighed and stood up. She had almost pulled her gun on that drifter, she was too hung up. Draining the last few drops of her beer, she turned to Hancock. "I'll get the job done tomorrow. Maybe the day after." for a second, Nora thought she saw disappointment flicker across his face, but it was too hard to tell; so many different shades of gray flooding her vision. He nodded, and she shrugged it off before heading upstairs to retrieve Dogmeat and head to the Hotel Rexford in town, wherever that was.

Nora collapsed onto the bed in her room at the Rexford with a sigh, making sure the safety was on before gently tossing her gun onto the floor. She knew it was still a pretty dangerous thing to do, but she was tired. Tomorrow she'd have to go with Nick to meet Dr. Amari or whoever, and after that she had to clear out Pickman's Gallery for Hancock. _Oh, and I can’t forget about Daisy's overdue book._ Taking off her bag, she tossed it somewhere near the end of the bed.

But on second thought...

Nora groaned and stood up from the bed. She stumbled across the room to her bag, and pulled out the book. Reading had always helped her calm down. She glanced at the very faded title. _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_.

She laid down on the bed, and rolled her eyes when Dogmeat jumped up next to her, but petted him anyways. With Dogmeat curled up to her and Nora comfortable enough, she began to read.

“Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy…”


	4. purple (like grape mentats)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hancock chuckled to himself as he watched her leave with hunched shoulders and her hand still lingering on her gun.

Hancock chuckled to himself as he watched her leave with hunched shoulders and her hand still lingering on her gun. Hancock had to admit, he was fascinated by her. She was a firecracker, he was sure, but was unusually quiet for someone who seemed to not mind that he had stabbed someone. Or maybe she _did_ mind, and had decided not to associate herself with him any more. But then why would she have accepted that job? She was a puzzle, to say the least. And she was wearing a _vault suit!_ What a rarity. Sure, there was that one vault, Vault 81 or whatever that allowed trading, but no one ever _left_ it. And for that  matter, _what color was that damn vault suit_?

Happy mood somewhat disturbed, he tossed a few caps on the bar and stood up. Charlie looked at him in surprise— well, his eyestalks whirled, because he never payed for drinks. After all, it was his bar! But no matter what Hancock said, it didn’t seem fair to let the mystery girl get free drinks, so just this once Hancock would pick up the bill.  Heading up the stairs, he stopped for a bit to bother Ham, who simply sighed and growled at him when he offered some him Jet. Hancock waggled his non-eyebrows, and grinned when Ham took it before walking out of The Third Rail.

“Hey, Daisy!” Hancock called out, raising a hand to wave at her. Daisy waved back, and he walked over to talk to her. “Do you have any idea what color a vault suit is?”

If Daisy had eyebrows to raise, she would. “No, I don’t believe I do. Why? If you wanna know so bad, just pick up a color dictionary.”

Tutting, Hancock picked up an empty can of Pork N’ Beans on her table and examined it. “Nah, you know I’ve never liked those things. You mind if I take this?” he said, pointing to the empty can.

Daisy shrugged. “Sure. See no reason why you shouldn’t have _an empty can_.” she shook her head. “Hancock, you are a strange fellow. Try to lay off the Jet, for my sake.” chuckling, she waved him away with one hand. “Now get. I’m closing up shop, and you can go whine to Fahrenheit about your _crush_.”

Hancock frowned, pocketing the can and walking away. “And by the way, do know her name?” he called over his shoulder. Daisy shook her head. Hancock turned back towards the Old State House, but stopped for a second to holler another thing back at Daisy. “And she’s not my crush!” Hancock heard her cackling as he stepped inside.

“Fahrenheit?” Hancock said, plopping himself down on a couch. He rested his boots on the couch’s armrest and picked up a box of Grape Mentats from the coffee table before putting one under his tongue. Absorbing the taste (which he was sure tasted nothing like grapes but he had never had grapes, so who was he to judge?), he looked at Fahrenheit , who was sitting on the couch across from him. “What’d you first think when you heard about colors?”

Fahrenheit looked up from the Guns and Bullets magazine which was resting in her lap. “I thought my dad was full of crap. Why?”

He waved a hand at her in a flapping manner and dropped the tin of Mentats onto the table without shutting it, not caring as half of the tablets in the tin flew out at the impact. “Well, almost everyone is the world is just takin’ other people's word that this is not how things really look. What if it’s all just an elaborate ruse?”  

Sighing, Fahrenheit closed the old magazine in her lap and plopped it onto the coffee table. “Oh yeah?”

He hummed, suddenly sitting up and settling his eyes on her with a serious gaze. “Yeah. I mean, if colors really do exist, why doesn’t everyone immediately touch a new person when they meet? Why isn’t there a system where if a stranger comes to town, the whole town gathers and they shake hands with everyone? Why isn’t everyone constantly trying to find their soulmate, their better half?”

Fahrenheit frowned and stood up. “Why are you getting so existential all of a sudden? You been drinking tonight?” she stepped toward him, as if to rest her palm on his forehead and check if he had a fever. Could ghouls even get fevers?

Shaking his head, Hancock laid back down and rested his hands on his chest. “Nah, just been thinking. Mentats do that to ya. And that new girl got me thinking.”

Relaxing, Fahrenheit let out a laugh and sat back down. “What? You got a crush?”

He glared at her. “ _No_. What, you and Daisy teaming up on me now? Yeah, I flirted with her a bit, but I do that with everyone.” he took of his hat and rubbed his bare head with his other hand. “I don’t know, I just got to thinking is all.” sighing, he let his hat fall to the ground and scraped one hand along the wooden floor in hopes of finding one of the many Mentats that had spilled to the floor. When he found none, he shifted around so he was facing the inside of the couch instead of  Fahrenheit’s smirking face.

“Don’t stay up too late thinking about her,  _lover boy_.”  Fahrenheit punched him lightly on the shoulder. “I’m going to head upstairs, see if any of our drifters need some more chems.”

Fahrenheit’s heavy boots clonked on the steps, but she stopped when Hancock whispered something, so faint and brief that she almost missed it. “ Fahrenheit… what’s your favorite color?”

Fahrenheit raised an eyebrow, and crossed her arms. A _favorite color_ ? How could anyone without a soul mate be able to pick a _favorite color?_   Never mind that she did in fact happen to have a favorite shade of gray. She glanced at him. He still wasn’t facing her, and hadn’t moved at all, so she wasn’t 100% sure that he had said anything at all. Just in case he had, she responded. “Green.”

“What type of green?”

She hesitated, but decided to indulge his sudden questioning. “Light green. The shade of grey on a tree’s leaves, if you’ve seen the picture on that old holotape I have hanging around.”

Hancock hummed, and didn’t offer up what _his_ favorite color was. Frowning, Fahrenheit shook her head. “That girl really is putting strange thoughts in your head. I _would_ warn you not to get too close to her, but knowing you, you probably already have.”

“Seriously, what is with everyone today?” Hancock called as she walked the rest of the way up the stairs. “I flirt with everyone!” when he was sure she had left, he sat up and pulled the empty can he had gotten from Daisy out and set it on the table. Rummaging in his other pocket, he retrieved the handful of ash he had swept into his pocket earlier at the bar. He carefully dropped the ash into the can and retrieved any residues of ash from his coat pocket to put into the empty can. Silently, he picked up and the can and stood up before walking over to a box tucked away in the corner of the room. Inside the box was several other cans, but these ones were filled to the brim with ash.

With a sigh, Hancock sat down and put the can in his hand into the box. He stared at the other cans, filled with ash, and cursed. He had no idea in _hell_ why he was collecting cans of ash. It had started after Hancock was a ghoul, already Mayor Hancock of Goodneighbor. He had been smoking a cigarette when he suddenly felt angry. He had stared at the cigarette in his hand, watching the smoke rise from the lit end of it. The _gray_ smoke. It was one of the things that people knew were really trully gray, because any object that was the color it appeared was common knowledge. Smoke was the most common example. Hancock had wanted to smash the cigarette into his hand, but instead he started collecting the ash. He hadn’t known _why_ he was doing it, and he still didn’t know why! All he knew for sure was that it had to do with the fact ash was gray. Ash didn’t lie to you, didn’t hold a promise that there was something beautiful that you couldn’t see and probably never would. Ash was just what it looked like. It was ash.

Hell, maybe gray was his favorite color! Maybe he enjoyed gray, because it was what everyone always saw and would always be able to see. Maybe he _was_ gray, undifferent and unchanging, always the same old thing.

Scowling, he pushed the box farther into the corner and stood up, walking over to the couch. He dropped onto the couch, letting himself slip into an uneasy sleep, filled with ash and lipstick and the shade of grey the color blue was and _her_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long paragraphs in the end, I couldn't find any good places to make a break. Also, Hancock questioning if colors were real and why people didn't touch each other immediately was 100% inspired by my dad as I was discussing this AU with him.


	5. white (like a lab coat)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora finally awoke when she felt Dogmeat’s long tongue lapping at her face.

Nora finally awoke when she felt Dogmeat’s long tongue lapping at her face. Groaning, she shoved him away but let out a laugh when he barked and wagged his tail enthusiastically, feeling it thump against her leg. She sat up, lifting her left wrist to peer at her Pip Boy with tired eyes. She let out another groan when she saw the time. _8:47 AM._ She _had_ meant to get up earlier, but had stayed up late to finish the book. Worryingly glancing around for it, she let out a sigh of relief when she spotted it on the floor, unchewed by Dogmeat and mostly clean. Nick was probably waiting for her in The Memory Den. She heaved herself out of bed, but ended up dragging the blankets with her as she fell onto the floor. Huffing, she tried to escape the blanket burrito she was wrapped in, but to no avail.  Oh well, Nick would have to wait a little longer.

As Nora trudged down the stairs of the Rexford, a tired yawn worked its way out of her mouth. One of the many things she missed from her time was coffee. There was a lot of big things she missed, like Nate and her family, but there was also a bunch of little ones, like being able to check out a book from the library or going on walks in the park. Coffee was somewhere near the top, and Nora would be lying if she said it had been easy to adjust to not having a rush of caffeine in the morning. Sure, there was chems, but Nora avoided taking those for the most part, unless she needed to lug something really heavy or there was a risk things could go bad if she didn’t take a huff of Jet. Just another thing she would have to get used to.  

Cautiously, she out the door into Goodnieghbor with Dogmeat on her heels, and she hadn’t been outside for more than five seconds before someone called to her. “Hey! Vault girl!”

 _Vault girl?_ Nora raised an eyebrow as she walked over to Daisy. “What is it, Daisy?”

“See, that’s exactly the thing. You know my name, but I don’t have a clue as to what yours is. So? You mind telling an old gal who you are?”

Nora’s cheeks lit up with a shade of gray that she knew to be pink. “Nora. My name’s Nora.” Clearing her throat, she assumed what she hoped to be a more professional tone. “Do you mind if I ask you a couple questions?”

“Depends on what questions you’re asking. But then again, I suppose you are talking care of the library for me, so shoot.”

Nora hesitated. She didn’t even know why she was asking these questions, but she was curious. Still, it didn’t seem like a good enough reason to pry into the Mayor’s personal life. “Who is Mayor Hancock? How long have you known him?” as soon as the words left Nora’s mouth, she wanted to stuff them back in, but by now it was too late.

If Daisy seemed startled by her questioning of Mayor Hancock, she didn’t show it, and instead simply pulled out a rag and started to wipe down her table, even though Nora couldn’t really see any dirt on it. “Hancock’s the mayor, and he’s a ghoul. I’ve known him ever since I moved into this here town. Anything else you want to know, I figure you can ask him yourself, hun.” Nora was sure that Daisy then purposefully looked away, judging by the smirk she had unsuccessfully tried to hide. “And now I wanna ask you a question. Any idea what color that thing you’re wearing is?”

Nora opened her mouth to answer truthfully, and say that it was a sort of medium colored blue, although Nora still hadn’t looked up the actual color in the color dictionary. But then she shut her mouth, and crossed her arms as she glared at Daisy. “Why do you want to know?” Nora couldn’t explain it, but part of her kind of wanted to keep the color of the vault suit to herself, and if Daisy really wanted to know, she could just look up the shade of gray. But blue… It was the last color that Nate had ever described to her, and she could remember it clearly. After all, it had been the same day the bombs had fallen.

_“Nate, what’s blue like?” Nora whispered the words into his ear softly, not sure if he was awake yet. He mumbled something softly, and turned over so he was now facing her._

_“What’d you say?”_

_“I asked what the color blue was like.”_

_He sighed, before chuckling warmly to open up his eyes and smile at her. “You woke me up just to ask me that?” his gaze softened even more as she pouted at him, and he slipped one of his hands into hers, and softly traced circles on the back of her hand. “Blue is… different. It’s the color of water, the color of the sky. But it’s the color of sadness, of depression. But it’s helpful. Blue can be sad, it can be terrible, but it can also be beautiful, and it can be amazing. It really depends on how you look at it…”_

Nora was jerked out of her daydream as Daisy respond to Nora’s question, which had been partly rhetorical, but also partially serious. “I’m just curious is all. You don’t need to tell me.” Daisy shrugged, and put away the rag in her hand. “I saw Valentine head into The Memory Den a little while ago. You shouldn’t keep him waiting.” Nora was puzzled by the sudden change of topic, but gave Daisy a quick nod and resumed her current mission, which was finding Shuan, and was _not_ questioning people about Mayor Hancock.

Nora’s eyes widened as she stepped inside, and she would’ve sworn the soft bark Dogmeat let out was from amazement.. There were so many different shades of grey… And Nora was almost _positive_ that the dress that the women was wearing and the chair she was wearing lounging on were shades of red, but she’d have to ask Nick to be sure. “Nick’s waiting downstairs, honey.” the woman purred.  Nora nodded uneasily and shuffled over to the stairs.

As she approached the bottom of them, she went over the information Nick had given to her about The Memory Den. It was a place where people relived good memories from the past, and was manned by two women, one of them being the women who greeted her, and the other being Dr. Amari.The fact that humankind had the ability to access memories in the brain and used them so people could be blissed out in the past _baffled_ Nora. The idea of seeing memories was amazing, and in Nora’s personal opinion, completely being misused here. _Well, at least I’m using it for an important reason_ . Nora grumbled in her head. _To find Shaun._

Dr. Amari was a rather short black haired women with a frown on her face and piercing eyes. “I take it this isn’t a social call.” she said the _exact_ moment Nora opened her mouth to introduce herself, and Nick sighed. He must’ve refrained from telling the doctor exactly what was up until Nora was here. Well, he hadn’t need to, as Nora had no real interest in trying to explain the situation.

“This one’s all yours, Nick.” Nora huffed, and then took a breath to calm herself down. Nick wasn’t to blame for anything. No one was. So why did she feel so worked up? As Nora questioned her feelings, it became clearer. _Ah. Thinking about the day of the bombing got me in a bad mood. Understandable._ But… no, it wasn’t just that. Nora frowned, and then glared at the ground when she realized what was bothering her. _Damn murdering mayor._ Truth be told, she had no idea why she had asked Daisy about the mayor. Most likely, she was just curious, but it possibly could be something else… Shaking her head, she focused her attention on the doctor’s lab coat, and appreciated the fact that she was seeing the lab coat for the dirty white that it was. Lab coats were interesting. It was rare to see an article of clothing that was pure white, although Nora personally thought she looked terrible in the color.

“We need a memory dig, Amari.” Nick said, apparently unaware of her discomfort. Nora’s eyes wandered over to the memory pods. They also looked like they were a shade of red. This place seemed to have style; perhaps someone in town who could see colors helped out, or they had asked Nick for help styling the place. “It's not going to be easy. The perp, Kellogg, is already cold on the floor."

Amari’s eyes bulged and she crossed her arms with a glare, bristling with tension. “Are you two _mad_ ? Putting aside the fact you’re asking me to _defile a corpse_ , you do realize that the memory simulators require intact, living brains to function?”

Pushing her irradiated mood out of her mind, she gave Dr. Amari a look of what she hoped appeared to be  desperation.“Please. Nick told me you were the only one who could help.”

“This dead brain had inside knowledge of the Institute, Amari. The biggest scientific secret of the Commonwealth. You need this, and so do we.”

Dr. Amari’s sharp gaze softened slightly as she sighed and rubbed her forehead with one hand and held out the other. “Fine… I’ll take a look, but no guarantees. Do you have it with you?”

Nick rummaged around in one of his pockets for a second before withdrawing a strange object that vaguely reminded Nora of what shrimp looked like. He placed it in her hand, and she drew it closer to her face to examine it with both eyes.

A frown appeared on her face, and her eyes widened as she prodded the thing in her hand. “What’s this? This isn’t a brain. This is… wait. That’s the hippocampus! And this thing attached to it! A neural interface?!” Dr. Amari’s eyes flew up to stare at Nick, who shuffled uncomfortably under her analyzing gaze.

“Yeah, those circuits look awfully familiar.”

“I’m not surprised. From what I’ve seen, all Institute technology has similar architecture.”

Nora nodded. “Go on.” She said, motioning for the doctor to continue.

“Mister Valentine is an older generation synth. But, Institute technology being what it is…” Amari hesitated, doubt clear on her face. “The brain implant could fit him. But that’s an incredible risk to take. We’re talking about wiring something to his brain.”

Nora shook her head furiously and rested her hand on Nick’s shoulder. “You don’t have to do this. We can find another way.” _I can’t lose another friend. I can’t._

Nick rested his mechanical fingers on her hand and gently pushed it off. “Don’t worry about me, Nora. I’m well past the warranty date anyway.”

Feeling tears starting to form at the pinpricks of her eyes, Nora pulled him in for a quick hug, and pushed him away before he had a chance to reject or accept it. “Don’t mess this up.” she blubbered, quickly wiping her tears away on her sleeve. “You ass.”

Nick’s surprised smile on his face widened, and this time _he_ rested a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”

“Whenever you’re ready, Mister Valentine.” the doctor’s voice brought Nora back to her senses, and she quickly straightened up and returned to her usual stormy expression. That had been rather strange, crying in front of Nick. Nora hadn’t cried that many times recently, not even when she left the vault, although she had cried when she went to bed for the first time in over a year alone, and again the next morning. Before the vault, Nora liked to think she had been a calm and down-to-earth person with a good sense of humor. But now? Things were so different from the previous time in her life. Nora was now silent more often, studying people to find out their weaknesses and strong points. She had even briefly considered changing her name, but that act seemed a bit too much like having a split personality disorder. Truth be told, it was nice to have hug someone again, although Nora would have preferred it if she hadn’t broken down in front of Dr. Amari. With any luck, she wouldn’t comment on in.

Nick turned to the doctor, and laughed nervously. “If I start cackling like an old grizzled mercenary, pull me out, okay?” he said as he took a seat in the chair the doctor had brought over.

“Let’s see here…” walking forward, the doctor muttered some things under her breath, and Nora pretend like she hadn’t just cried while standing a couple of feet away from them. The doctor leaned down and started fiddling with the back of his head, which was out of Nora’s line of sight.“I need you to keep talking to me, Mister Valentine. Any slight changes in your cognitive functions could be dire. Are you… feeling any different?”

“There’s a lot of flashes… static… I can’t make any sense of it, doc.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.” Sighing, she stood up and dropped her hands to her sides. “The mnemonic impressions are encoded. It appears the Institute has one last fail safe. There’s a lock on the memories in the implant.”

Nora gulped, and pushed down the panic that flooded her. “Is Nick going to be okay?”

“Yes, the connections appear to be stable. Hopefully, it’ll be as simple as unplugging the implant once we’re done. But that doesn’t get around the current problem. The memory encryption is too strong for a single mind, but… what if we used two?”

Nora’s mouth opened as if she had something to say, but she then shut it. A confused grimace appeared on her face. “How would that work?”

“We would load both you and Mister Valentine into the memory loungers. Run your cognitive functions in parallel. He’ll act as a host while your consciousness drives through whatever memories we can find.”

Nora hesitated. This seemed like a bad idea; so many things could go wrong… Yet, was there another way to find Shaun? Stalling the queasiness she felt, she nodded in confirmation. “All right. Let’s get started.”

“Just sit down over there. And keep your fingers crossed.”

... _Let’s hope this goes well._ And with that, Nora sat herself down in the memory lounger, ignoring the bad feeling twisting in her gut. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this seems poorly written.


	6. yellow (like nick's eyes)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John was a little boy, young enough not to care what his actual age was.

_John was a little boy, young enough not to care what his actual age was.  It didn’t matter. He ran through the streets of Diamond City, not caring that he stumbled several times or that he made someone almost fall down. He finally skidded to a halt when he reached his destination._

_A pile of rubbish sat in a heap. Well, to anyone else it was a pile of rubbish, but to John  it was a pile of treasures. He picked up a ragged t-shirt, and slipped it on over his own. Looking down at it, he tried to imagine what color it was. Was it yellow or green? Purple or orange? Or was it blue, like the sky?_

_John looked up at the sky and laughed. It was a light shade of grey today, so light that it hurt to look at it for too long. He loved the sky; it was the only thing that changed constantly, unlike Diamond City or his older brother’s rotten attitude. It didn’t matter what colors_ he _was. He would always be the same combination of grays, but the sky sometimes had spots of white in it that looked like those animals he had seen in a picture book but sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes it was a deep gray, especially when the sun started to set, and at nighttime it was pure black with little twinkling spots of white in it._

_“John!” his mother called out, and Hancock turned to see her walking towards him and—_

Hancock was jerked out his dream when something hit him in the face _hard_. Sitting upright with a lurch, he raised a hand up to his face to see what had smacked into him. It was a magazine, judging by the faded glossy sheen on the cover, and when he brought it up to his eyes and opened them the cover of Fahrenheit's Guns and Bullets magazines started back at him.  

Looking up, he saw Fahrenheit herself looking at him with an amused smile from across the room. “I thought it was about time I woke you up.”

Hancock let out a groan and turned away from Fahrenheit so he was facing the couch. “Why? Is there any possible thing you need me for, or do you just enjoy torturing me?” he said as bitterly as he could.

Fahrenheit snorted. “ A bit of both. Now come on, Nick wants to see you.”

Laid back attitude gone, Hancock whirled around and stood up with a start. “Why? Is something wrong?” a frown wormed its way onto his face. “Does this have something to do with that vault dweller girl?”

Nodding, Fahrenheit let out a sigh. “Apparently something happened at The Memory Den. Nick and the girl explored some asshole’s memories, and afterwards she seemed a little shaken up. Then Nick said something in the guy’s voice, and then she cried and left.”

Hancock’s mind spun at the thought of her crying, but he returned his thoughts to his friend. “How’s Nick?”

Fahrenheit shrugged her shoulders before lighting a cigarette. Hancock watched the ( _gray_ ) smoke curl up towards the ceiling as she spoke. “I don’t know, but if it was me, I wouldn’t be feeling too hot. Now get out of here and go see him.”

Sighing, Hancock grabbed his hat and stood up. Walking towards the door, he put his hat on and turned to glance back at Fahrenheit. “Fahrenheit, make sure the girl stays safe.”

Although was Fahrenheit facing away from him, he could practically see the smirk on her face. “Whatever you say, Hancock, although I’m sure she can look out for herself.” Hancock scowled as he watched her tap her cigarette and let the ash fall to the ground. He left without saying another word.

Hancock may have started the day in a good mood, but it was quickly turning sour. Trying to dispel his unhappy thoughts, he let himself wonder about what possibly could’ve made the vault girl react so strongly. Given her reaction to him in the bar, he was sure that there was no need for him to tell Fahrenheit to ‘make sure the girl stays safe.’ But he couldn’t help but worry. But… why? What possibly could’ve made her captivating to him? He wasn’t sure. It probably had something to do with Nick. After all, any friend of Nick’s was a friend of Hancock’s.

Any lingering thoughts of the mysterious vault girl were immediately cast away from his mind the moment he opened The Memory Den’s door and saw Nick.

The synth was sitting on a bench with his head cradled in both hands. He was shaking, and it was a shock to Hancock that the synth’s hat was laying next to him instead of sitting atop its usual resting place, AKA Nick’s head.

Nick didn’t even spare him a glance when he walked forwards and picked up Nick’s hat. Hancock cleared his throat with a cough, yet Nick still didn’t look up. “Wanna trade hats for a day Valentine? You can be the ruggedly handsome mayor of Goodneighbor, and I can be a sly detective solving crimes and kicking ass.”

Finally, Nick looked up, and Hancock would be lying if he wasn’t disturbed by the amount of sadness resting in Nick’s light gray eyes. “Hancock, I’m really not in the mood.”

Hancock plopped himself down beside Nick and spared a glance around. It had been a while since he had seen the interior of The Memory Den, and a part of him was glad that Irma seemed to have enough sense to know not to bother Nick right now. “You wanna talk about it, or should we just sit here?” twirling Nick’s hat between his fingers like he would his knife, Hancock contemplated both choices he had presented to Nick. He wouldn’t force Nick to talk about what had happened, but he had to be honest; Nick and Vault Girl seemed to be pretty close, or at least closer than Nick usually was with his normal clients. If she disappearing had hurt Nick, Hancock was a tiny bit worried about what Nick might do as a reaction.

“You got a cigarette?”

Usually Hancock would’ve make fun of Nick for smoking even though he can’t feel the nicotine, but this time he  just handed one over. “You need a lighter?” Nick nodded, and when he held the cigarette up to his mouth Hancock lit it for him. Hancock again watches gray smoke waft upwards, but is interrupted when Nick speaks.

“You know about my situation about color?” eyes widening, Hancock looked at Nick, but he wasn't looking Hancock in the eyes.

Hancock nods, but remembering that Nick can’t see him, speaks. “Yeah. You can’t see color, but you can tell what color objects are, right?”

Nick hummed. “Mhhm. But do you know what’s the real kicker?” and now Nick’s looking Hancock straight in his eyes, and Hancock just has to drop the synth’s gaze because it’s too intense. Unsure about whether or not he should speak, he nods his head again.

Nick suddenly looked away and laughed spitefully. “I sometime get flashes of the guy I’m based off of, you know? So every once in awhile I get a sudden burst of wonder or something, and you know what it is? _It’s the darned man I came from thinking about colors._ I’ve felt his  astonishment, his joy, his thankfulness that he met his true soulmate. _I can feel his happiness and every time it stops I’m reminded of the same god damned  fact that I’ll never be able to have that happen to me_.”

Hancock says nothing. They sit in complete silence for a couple of minutes before Nick sighs and opens his mouth again. “Me and Nora explored the memories of this guy named Kellogg who killed her husband and stole her son. It was… pretty dramatic. The guy had to go through the pain of losing his soulmate.”

There’s so many important facts in that sentence Hancock can barely handle it. First of all, Vault Girl’s name is Nora? Second, _she had a damn husband who got murdered and her baby was kidnapped_. But by the look on Nick’s face, he’s not done yet.

“So I came to first, and when Dr. Amari unplugged me I waited upstairs for Nora. I vaguely have the memory of saying something when she walked towards me… And then she burst out into tears. She choked something out that I couldn’t quite understand through her tears, but it sound like ‘Sanctuary’ and ‘need to go’ and ‘look after yourself.’ So now you’re all up to speed.” Nick tapped his cigarette against his finger. “Thoughts?”

Gulping, Hancock slowly started to speak. “Sounds like you both have a lot on your plate.”

Nick laughed, and thankfully this one sound real and happy. “That’s an understatement.”

“So… you gonna be alright?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ll pack up and head back to Sanctuary, probably taking Dogmeat with me since he's still around and Nora has disappeared. She'll talk to me when she’s ready. She’s strong, and can handle herself. If one of my best friends spoke in the voice of the man who killed my beloved and kidnapped my son, and whatever they said directly related to that, I’d probably want to spend some time apart from them too.”

Hancock lets out a chuckle, and pauses for a moment to examine the hat in his hands. It’s one of the darker shades of gray, and there’s a black bland around the center. He hands the hat back over to Nick, who takes it with his free hand. “You get back out there, partner.” standing up, Hancock stretches momentarily before the door is flung open with a wide bang and there’s a worried female ghoul standing in the doorway. Or at least, she appears worried, judging by the expression on her face, and she seems to have sprinted here, judging by the fact she’s heaving in breaths.

“Mayor… Hancock!... Thank…” she sucked in one last big breath before letting it out. “Thank god you’re here. Fahrenheit sent me. There’s something going on in your storeroom! She said she wants you nearby, but not to go down.”

Hancock’s pushing past her out the door before she finishes her sentence.

Although Hancock knows that it’s almost certainly better to let Fahrenheit do her thing, part of him wants to burst inside screaming. But, he’s John Hancock, Mayor of Goodneighbor, and this is exactly why he has a bodyguard. He can’t help but worry about Fahrenheit. Although he isn’t exactly close to her, he’s gotten used to having her around, and he’ll be sad if she’s gone. But what is Hancock supposed to do currently? Just sit around and wait for her to take care of whatever is happening down there? That seems too much like being a coward for Hancock, and he swore he would never let that happen again.

He’s been pacing across the floor this entire time, and just at at the moment he decides to crack the door open just the _teeny tiniest bit_ to see what’s going on, the door creaks before someone pushes it open.

And hell, it’s Vault Girl, or as Nick said, _Nora_ staring at him with a rather bashful look on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm apologetic about this chapter since it feels a bit ooc for Nick, but I am just so pumped that I finally wrote some more and I actually know where it's going! I hope I'll post the next chapter soon. 
> 
> (Yes I'm aware my tenses are a bit wonky shhh it'll be our secret)


	7. green (like a super mutant)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nora kind of has a slight panic attack? I don't know, I'm lucky enough to have never gone through one personally.

Nora felt sick to her stomach. Never, in all her life, had she expected that her husband would be shot and her baby kidnapped. And never did she think that she would have the chance to explore the memories of the man who had done so. The exhaustion and nausea  of coming out of the machine wasn’t just physical.

“Slow movements, okay? I don’t know what kind of side effects the procedure might have had. No one’s ever… done this before. How do you feel?”

Nora’s stomach did yet another flip. “Am I okay? Are you seeing anything… bad?”

“Don’t be alarmed, but I honestly don’t know what to look for.” the doctor gave Nora a sheepish grin. “As I said before, this is uncharted territory. But your neural and physiological readings have returned to normal. From a medical standpoint, you’re fine.” despite the current situation, Nora felt slightly excited that she had been the first person _ever_ to do this procedure. If Nora of the past— “Pre-Fallout” was the name she had given to her past self in her mind— she probably would’ve been bursting with excitement. “Are you… ready to talk about what happened in there?” Dr. Amari’s looked at Nora with a sense of curiosity.

Nora squirmed, and was filled with the sense of being a new type of bacteria being examined under a microscope. “You were along for the ride, weren’t you? You saw what I saw.”

“Yes, but it’s important we review everything together. In case either of us missed anything.”

Nora took a second to allow herself to breathe and organize her thoughts. There were so many different things and feelings that Nora should probably process, but she shoved the excess into a storage closet in her mind and allowed the most recent experience to come to light. “I saw Kellogg’s life… The man who ruined my family… The man I _killed_ .” Nora almost felt like vomiting; before she had been killing mindless people who were trying to kill her, people who she could pretend were less than human. It was a bit sickening to come to the realization that all of the people Nora had dealt with — _murdered —_ had been living, breathing people, with thoughts and hopes and families and lives and—

Nora quickly reached into her sack and pulled out a tin of Mentats. Although she had yet to take any except for when she first happened upon some, Nora felt like they might help  the situation. Dr. Amari raised an eyebrow when she bit off the half of one and popped it into her mouth, but Nora didn’t mind the look and put the Mentats away without any fuss.

“That’s right. He was a human being just like the rest of us, and he had reasons for being what he was, however cruel. How does that… make you feel?” her gaze flicked from Nora’s to her gun, which Nora hadn’t realized until now she was gripping.

“I’m… I’m not sure, doctor…”

“I don’t know if there’s any “right” way to feel, either.” the doctor stiffened, and she fiddled with the edges of her dirty white lab coat. “We’re getting off-track. The important thing is that we discovered the Institute's greatest secret. Teleportation. The only question is, what do we do now?”

Allowing the Mentat to stimulate her mind, Nora let out a gentle hum before she realized the solution. “That scientist Kellogg was supposed to track down. Virgil. We need to find him.”

“You’re right! A rogue Institute scientist could answer all kinds of questions. Where did the memory say he was? The Glowing Sea? That doesn’t make sense. No one goes there. Not even if they were desperate.”

Nora frowned. “Why? What makes the Glowing Sea so dangerous?”

“The name says it all. Radiation. So much that nothing there could possibly live. Nothing… pleasant… Navigating radioactive hazards is nothing new, but the Glowing Sea can kill a man in seconds. That’s why it doesn’t make sense. Virgil fleeing into that hell. The exposure alone..” she shuddered.

Feeling the effects of that half a Mentat start to fade, Nora’s voice hardened as she answered. “If we need to find Virgil, then I’m going after him.”

“If you’re going to go, be prepared. You’ll need some way to the combat radiation there. It’s called the Glowing Sea for a reason.”

“I’ll find a way to get through the rads. Don’t worry.”

“Good luck, and… be safe. By the way, I unplugged Mister Valentine first. Removed the implant while you were waking up.  He’s waiting for you upstairs.”

Nora gave a vague nod to the doctor, and slowly started to walk up the stairs. The closet space she had shoved her thoughts into had burst open, and there were so many things to think about. Kellogg’s mother… Kellogg had had a baby with his soulmate, and then having to experience her dying and having to live with the guilt… At least Nora had the comfort of knowing there was nothing she could’ve done to stop Nate’s death and Shaun’s kidnapping.

Her thoughts and expression took a turn when she saw Nick sitting patiently on the dark gray couch. Nick had risked his life for her, just so she could figure out how to track down the Institute. She owed him a debt that she could never repay. Walking towards him with a grin, she started to open her mouth to ask him if the couch he was sitting on was infact red, but he spoke first.

“Hope you got what you were looking for inside my head. Heh. I was right. Should’ve killed you when you were on ice.”

The happy expression on Nora’s face disappeared in an instant, and she felt tears start to pour out of her eyes. That had been _Kellog’s_ voice. The voice of the man who had torn apart her family but had had such a terrible life of his own…

“Nick, go to Sanctuary. I’m sorry but I need to go, look after yourself.” Nora wasn’t sure if that sentence had been at all decipherable through her sobs, and due to Nick’s startled and concerned and _hurt_ expression and oh god she was so so sorry but she had to _leave_ because she couldn’t hear _that man’s_ voice again and—

Nora fled.

It said a lot about Nora that she only managed to flee for a block before she had to stop. Sure, her time in the Commonwealth (what was it now? 1 month, 2?) had given her muscles she hadn’t had before and a certain mindset her pre-fallout self would have been horrified at, but running and sobbing at the same time were a bit too much for her.

Nora ended up leaning against a brick wall in an alleyway, and she took a couple of minutes to let herself cry mindlessly. It felt good to cry. The only day Nora had allowed herself to cry was her first night in the Commonwealth, the one spent huddled on a mattress in the ruins of her old home. After that, she had been determined to be someone who could deal with this new world. It had been hard, having to change her thoughts on murder and grave-robbing, but if she wanted to survive, if she wanted to give Nate the justice he _damn well deserved_ , if she wanted to find Shaun, she would have to change.

 

 _But, hey, at least I have friends to help me out._ With a blubbery smile, Nora stood up from where she had sunk to the ground. Wiping her nose on her sleeve, she took a deep breath and thought of Nate describing her colors. It was a tactic that helped calm her down, remembering Nate’s soothing voice describing the despair of blood or the passion of red. She lamented doing it too often, though, as sadness always came along. It was worth it, though; she should go apologize to Nick. He was her best friend, and Nora would hate to lose him due to her actions. The sooner Nora went back to The Memory Den and said she was sorry, the better. But…

The alleyway clearly extended on after this point, and Nora couldn’t help it if she was a little curious. The area seemed too free of debris to not be frequented by someone. Nick might need a moment to calm down as well, and if Nora was being honest, she still felt a bit queasy from her experience in The Memory Den…

With a moment of brief hesitation, Nora checked her gun was loaded before continuing deeper into the alley.

A metal door greeted her, the color light enough to be a real gray but when Nora compared it to her vault suit it seemed closer to blue. Stepping forward, Nora started when a hatch on the door slid back, causing Nora to almost draw her gun (something that seemed to be happening an awful lot recently) as a ghoul with a set of dark gray hair appeared in the tiny window.

“Hey you. Looking for work?”

A frown appeared on Nora’s face. An alleyway was not the best place to start a business, and judging from what she had seen of Goodneighbor so far it was more likely than not whatever this ghoul was doing might be frowned upon by general society. “What kind of work?”

“It’s good work. Under the supervision of the best boss you’ll ever have. If you don’t mind a little manual labor and don’t ask too many questions, you’re in. I’ll give you 50 caps to start. Interested? ”

Huh. Well, Nora had been spending a lot of time with Nick lately, and while she loved the synth dearly and knew she did need to apologize to him, the fear that Kellogg still remained somewhere inside Nick’s mind was there, and it might be good for them to spend some time apart after Nora’s outburst. NIck would most certainly worry about her, but maybe Nora could convince Hancock to spend a message to him. It was clear Nora would worry more and more about their next meeting the longer she took, but maybe whatever this ghoul had planned would give her time and room to clear her head. She could figure out what to say to Nick, and use whatever caps this ghoul gave her to maybe buy a present for him, perhaps a new hat or trenchcoat. Now, it was true the ghoul was shady, and Nora knew it was likely she was getting mixed up in something she shouldn’t be, but her worry of Nick was great enough that she could push that thought out of her mind for the time being and accept whatever work she was given.

“I’m in.”

The ghoul gave her a pleased smile. “That’s what I like to hear.” The door swung open, forcing Nora to step back. “Let’s go inside. I’ll give you the lowdown. Name’s Bobbi, by the way.”

As Nora stepped forward, she found herself yet again thinking _“let’s hope this goes well.”_ Doubt welled up in her gut, but she shoved it down and followed Bobbi inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there's kind of a slight change of mood for the fic near the end, this was my rewrite which was a lot better because my other version was basically fluff.


	8. brown (like her eyes)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mouth falling open, Hancock froze and stared at her for a couple seconds before whipping out his shotgun, although he kept it pointed at the ground. “Hey Vault Girl, you mind telling me what you’re doing coming out of my private storeroom?” He managed to rasp as shock and surprise flooded his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beware, this chapter is about half as long as the usual length I go for. I would've made it longer but it had been so long since an update I wanted to get this out there, and the pacing in this chapter felt natural so I didn't want to stretch it out. Enjoy.

Mouth falling open, Hancock froze and stared at her for a couple seconds before whipping out his shotgun, although he kept it pointed at the ground. “Hey Vault Girl, you mind telling me what you’re doing coming out of my private storeroom?” He managed to rasp as shock and surprise flooded his mind.

At the sight of Hancock’s gun she immediately reached for her combat rifle, but didn’t pull it and instead rested her hand on it. Raising her eyes from the shotgun to meet his, her expression had changed to a rather blank stare. “Mayor Hancock, I was just about to go find you. What brings you to this part of the Commonwealth?”

“....Someone told me there was trouble in my storeroom and I reckoned I better head on over here. You?” he said, playing along.

“I believe it was Bobbi No-Nose, sir, who lead me here under the false pretense we would be robbing the Diamond City storeroom.” Hancock instantly relaxes as he realizes she didn’t expect to be here, and allows himself to smile. “Your bodyguard intervened, and I luckily managed to convince Bobbi to flee instead of fight.” Clearing her throat, she let both her hands drop to her sides and eyed him warily. “I’m assuming I’m in the clear?”

Letting out a hearty laugh, he raised an eyebrow at her uncomfortable body language and was tempted to thump her on the back. “Sister, you managed to stop Bobbi No-Nose from something it seemed she had set her mind on. I’m impressed; hopefully she’ll clear out now, since if she doesn’t there’ll be trouble.”

She gave him a questioning look. “I… actually thought you’d be more angry.”

Hancock shook his head and patted her on the shoulder. “I’m honestly just happy no one got shot.

“So… we’re okay?”

“We are. In fact, take this as payment for protecting my storeroom.” Hancock riffled through his coat pockets for a second before taking out a small bag of what he thought was about 200 caps and handed it to her, appreciating the flabbergasted look on her face. Not waiting for a response, he continued talking. “I’m more concerned about the fact I was enough of a tyrant to almost get robbed. Am I turning into ‘The Man?’ Just a few years ago I would’ve been scheming with people like Bobbi.”

Vaul— _Nora_ finally regained her composure and stuck the bag of caps away in her rucksack. “Mayor Hancock, I haven’t known you that long, but it seems like you’re the opposite of a tyrant.”

Although he let out a chuckle, Hancock’s mind was racing to examine the past couple months of his life. He had started to become more and more like, well, a mayor. Giving speeches, helpin’ folk who couldn’t help themselves, trying to keep the peace in Goodneighbor. While that was all well and good, fear started to bloom in his mind like an unwanted crop. What if he became like his brother, or worse, the Institute? Goodneighbor was supposed to be a town of misfits, and in Hancock’s experience anyone in power for too long, no matter how good they were, eventually became corrupted.

He snapped back into the moment when Nora touched him gently on his arm, a frown on her face. “Mayor Hancock? You okay? You kind of drifted off there.”

“Sorry, sister. Just thinkin’ bout the stuff that really matters— you know, living free.” His gaze bore into Nora’s, hoping she would catch the implied question behind the words.

Hancock’s heart faltered when she shifted her gaze and dropped her arm, taking a couple steps back. “Aren’t you the mayor of Goodneighbor? How could you just leave?”

“Yeah, and if I come with you I’ll still be the mayor, even if I’m not in residence. I’ve walked out of here plenty of times, trying to make sure the power doesn’t go to my head. That’s not what bein’ mayor of Goodneighbor is about. I’m just looking for a break is all.”

Raising her eyes to meet his, she titled her head. “If you’re asking to come with me, why should I say yes? I barely know you, and within the first minute I saw you you killed a man in cold blood.”

“That’s true, because he was an asshole. Come on, Vault Girl, when’s the last time you took a risk?” He stuck out his hand for her to shake.

She stared at it, and Hancock desperately hoped she would take it.

“Nora.”

“Huh?”

“My name is Nora.” She gave him a pleasant smile, took his hand, and the world exploded into colors.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me almost 6 months to write this. Ah, the qualms of life.
> 
> Reblog this chapter [here](http://clankitsfanfiction.tumblr.com/post/153977204802/color-me-like-chems-a-hancock-x-female-sole) on Tumblr if you so wish,


	9. black (like his eyes)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All she did was shake Hancock’s hand. That’s all she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You have no idea how tempted I was to not make them soulmates. You have no idea.

All she did was shake Hancock’s hand. That’s all she did. But apparently that was all it took, because suddenly the world isn’t in shades of gray anymore but in colors so _bright_ and _blinding._ Nora jerks her hand back, closes her eyes, and sinks to the ground. 

Who the fuck made this her fate? Who decided she’d get her baby ripped away from her, that her husband ( _who she loved, who she stills loves, and she doesn’t love Hancock, she does not love him_ ) would be murdered, and then in the hellish remains of the world she knew she would find her soulmate?

Whoever it was, they’re an asshole.

Nora pulled back her eyelids a tiny bit and shut them immediately because everything is _new_ and _different_ and it’s like coming out of the cryopod again except this time it’s worse because she’s been in there her entire life.

Vaguely she heard Hancock sit down across from her. “Well then,” he says, and Nora thinks that’s an understatement. What are they supposed to do now? They’re soulmates, right? But Nora doesn’t _want_ a soulmate. She wants Nate back, she wants her husband, not some stranger who was born over 200 years after she was. How is this even possible?

Hancock cleared his throat, and finally she opened her eyes and _looked_ at him, really looked, at the color of his deformed skin and his shirt and his coat and everything else. “What now?” He questioned, and Nora had to look away from him.

“My husband’s been dead for three months.” Actually, Nora’s not sure whether it’s been two months or three, but it doesn’t really matter in the end. Hancock let out a wince.

“I’m sorry to hear that, sister.”

Nora nods numbly and doesn’t say anything else. Neither does Hancock. They just sit there for a while, staring at each other, before Hancock finally stands up and offers Nora his hand. “Look, we don’t know each other that well. Hell, you’ve probably barely had any time in the wasteland at all. I’m not saying we have to be lovers or anything, but do you at least wanna try to be friends?”

A quiet chuckle escapes Nora because Hancock offered her his hand about two minutes ago and that’s when everything changed _forever_. Who knows what will happen if she takes it again?

Nora grasps his hand in her own and pulls herself up. “Alright, May—... Hancock. Let’s be friends.”

He gave her a smile and out of politeness Nora returned it.

The walk back to Goodneighbor is slow and long. Neither of them had actually stated their destination, but Hancock had started to amble in that direction so Nora followed. He doesn’t speak, and Nora is thankful for the fact he’s giving her time to process, but judging by the wide-eyed way he looks around he’s simply taking in the colored world. Nora’s glanced around a couple times as well, and she doesn’t know how to feel. She does, of course, know a few basic colors— the ones everybody knows from the phrases they learned in school. Dirt is brown, the sky is blue, grass is green, etc.

Nora took a moment to escape her thoughts and glanced at the sky. It looked nothing like her vault suit.

Her vault suit was a deep blue— at least, Nora _assumed_ it was a deep blue. For all she knew this was the natural shade of blue most things in life took. _It was the last thing Nate told me the color of_.

And then Nora fell right back down the rabbit hole, to the main subject of her thoughts. Nate. What would he think of this? If he were still alive, Nate would tell Nora to do what she thought was right. She would never leave him— they both knew that, or at least Nora hoped he had— but she probably would’ve tried to be close personal friends with Hancock. Nora knew that soulmates weren’t always necessarily romantic, but society had made it to the point where you were basically shunned if you had knowledge of who your soulmate was and were not romantically involved with them if they were alive. Nate hadn’t discussed his soulmate much, but he had barely known her. They had met the summer between his junior and senior year of highschool. She had been visiting his hometown with her family and their first touch was when she dropped her wallet in an ice cream shop. Nora hadn’t known Nate at the time, but she had had a boyfriend, so they simply swapped numbers and agreed to discuss the matter soon. Two days later, she died in a car accident.

Her train of thought halted when she realized Hancock was a couple paces behind her. Stopping, she turned and gave him a questioning look.

He was staring at the sky, mouth open and eyes wide in admir— no, wait. Judging by his facial features and body language, that was fear. She turned and squinted at the spot where he was gazing.

_Oh, fuck me._

There was a radstorm heading right for them. That’s why the sky looked nothing like her vault suit.

Nora gave herself a couple seconds for fear to burst in her belly and shock to shiver down up her spine before she shoved it down. Turning back to Hancock, she grabbed his arm.

“Do you know of anyplace we can shelter nearby?”

Slowly, he shook his head, but with a quick glance around she saw a squalid shed and dragged him towards it until he broke out into a sprint alongside her.

It sickened her, looking over her shoulder briefly, how the radstorm looked kind of beautiful.

**

They reached the shack and barricaded themselves quickly, using the one shelf in there for the door and thanking their lucky stars there was no windows. Afterwards, Nora sat in silence, pondering, while Hancock leaned against the wall, hat over his face.

Eventually, he spoke. “I never knew what color my hair was for a long time. As a kid I loved the idea of colors, but didn’t see the value of lookin’ at what colors I was.”

Nora glanced at him in surprise; every kid she had known when young examined what they looked like.

“Only found out when a color-seerer told me. My hair was blond, and my eyes were blue.” Nora almost laughed at that; his eyes were blue, the last color nate had ever described.

“My hair’s brown,” Nora blurted out, glancing away from Hancock in the processes. “So are my eyes.”

“Mmm. Guess I got no color of for my hair now, and, well, you’ve seen my eyes.” He chuckled harshly. “Pitch black.”

Thunder sounded nearby and they both jumped at the sound. “Sounds like we might be in here a while,” Nora rasped, the sudden absence of water making her realize just how parched her throat was.

“Ya know, I’ve kind of always wanted to go out in a radstorm. Rads don’t affect me in small doses, ‘course, but after the newfound discovery of colors I won’t risk it.” Hancock shrugged off his coat and tossed it in front of her. “Use this if you’re cold. I’m as warm as could be.”

Surprised at the sudden gesture, Nora picked up the coat and laid it across her lap. Examining the color, she found it rather remarkable. “Hey Hancock, you know what color this coat of yours is?”

“Call me John, if you want. And, uh, the coat is red.”

Laughter bubbled up in her throat. Of _course_ his coat was her favorite color. Or at least red used to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos are loved and appreciated, and comments are loved even more!
> 
> Reblog this chapter [here](http://clankitsfanfiction.tumblr.com/post/155089562727/color-me-like-chems-a-hancock-x-female-sole) on Tumblr if you so wish.


	10. pearl (like lightning)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was hard for Hancock to keep his eyes open.
> 
> Not because he was sleepy— well, he was a bit tired, not sleepy— but because of all the colors.

It was hard for Hancock to keep his eyes open.

Not because he was sleepy— well, he was a bit tired, not sleepy— but because of all the colors. Truth be told, there wasn’t that much to look at in the shack, but he had figured out that the almost-rotting interior was a shade of brown, since it seemed to match Nora’s hair. Really the only source of color in the room was Nora herself.

And _god-fucking damn_ if she wasn’t a radiant beauty. So much so, it almost hurt to look at her.

Sighing, he pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against and crossed the room towards her sleeping body. He sat down a couple feet away from her, and allowed himself to stare, because he’d had _so_ little time to look at colors in this world and why not start now?

It was ironic that he could now see the color of her vault suit but still hadn’t asked her what the color _was_. Huffing, he dropped his gaze a little lower until it rested on his overcoat, which she was clutching in a fist as she slept. Red was for sure the more vibrant color he had seen so far, but he hadn’t seen that many. Red, brown, and the color of the radstorm, if he thinks about it.

Holy fuck. He’d found his soulmate. The one that was supposed to be his better half. The one that was supposed to be his everything.

So why did he feel like laughing and crying all at once?

Hancock likes Nora. He knows he could grow to like her that way, too— can already see hints of a crush creeping into his consciousness. But fuck, she had a husband. A husband who’d died _recently_ , and assuming he’d been in whatever vault she came from with her, what the fuck could’ve killed him in a vault? Yeah, he’s heard of Vault 81, but none of the pansies in there would dare take one step outside their precious vault. So which one is she from?

Does she even want a romantic relationship? Well, the answer to that question was fucking obvious— of course not. Her husband basically just _died_ . The question is, _would_ she ever want one? And with a ghoul, at that? Hancock doesn’t know. He’s not going to know for a while, most likely. So what was he supposed to do in the meantime? Follow her around like a dog?

 _Hey, that actually doesn’t sound that bad_ . It had essentially been what he was going to do anyways. He would’ve been interested even if they hadn’t been soulmates. _Hey, here’s a thought; does being a ghoul affect the way I perceive color?_

His internal monologue was stifled when he heard Nora let out some mumbles. Pausing, he focused his gaze back on her and listened. Eventually, he managed to catch some words. “No… Shaun…” Who was Shaun? Must’ve been her husband. Shit, he shouldn’t be listening to this. Should he wake her up or let her sleep? She looked exhausted, and he didn’t want to wake her if it didn’t some necessary.

Luckily, she let out a sob, and that made his mind up quick enough. Standing up, he gently inched his way towards her until he could see the mist when she exhaled. Looked like his coat wasn’t doing that good a job keeping her warm. He hesitated, wondering if he needed to touch her to wake her, but it seemed unlikely that a voice could wake her right now unless he screamed himself hoarse. Steeling himself for a violent reaction, he leaned down and gently  laid his hand on her shoulder. Perhaps a little too gently, as she didn’t wake. So he gave her the tiniest shake.

He should’ve expected her to kick him in the stomach, really. It was his own fault for trying to wake up someone in the Commonwealth with a shake. Why couldn’t he have just smashed a glass or something?

“I wasn’t expecting to end up flat on my back this soon.” He managed to cough out, despite his sudden shortage of breath.

“Shit, Hancock, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. My fault for being so close. Would appreciate a hand up though.”

“Yeah, of course.” Since he was unable to see her, he could only hear her let out a hard breath and a few sniffles. A few seconds later, she came into view and offered him a hand.

He took it and felt shivers run through his spine at her touch. With a grunt, she helped pull him back up before handing him his coat. “Has the radstorm stopped yet?”

“No idea. I’m guessin’ so, seeing as how the sounds of lighting have stopped." She chuckled, and he gave her a look. “What?”

“Lightning doesn’t make any noise. What you hear is thunder. Lightning is the flash that comes before.”

Shrugging on his coat, he made an impressed noise.“Huh. Never knew that. You’re one smart cookie.”

“I do have a degree in law, after all.”

 _What?_ “What’ya mean? Like, I know what a degree is, and what law is, but how can you have a degree in one?”

Her lips moved but no words came out. Gaze hardening, she stood up straighter and took a breath. “Guess I’d have to tell you at some point.” She shifted for a second more and almost turned away, but at the last second she turned and stared at him. “I’m from the past. Before the war. I went into a vault the day it started. I was frozen, but woke up briefly in time to see my husband get shot in front of me as my son was stolen from his arms. I was frozen again and only woke up months ago in this wasteland.”

Dead silence. Hancock wasn’t sure what to say. Was she being serious? But who the fuck would lie about something like _this_? Did she need mental help?

She stared at him, evidently waiting for a response, but when the silence stretched on she sighed and turned away. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe me. You can ask Piper and Nick, they know my story. Nick’s helping me find my son.” Walking towards the door, she put her ear against it for a couple seconds before looking back at him. “Sounds like the storm has stopped. You coming?”

Still stunned, he nodded slowly. “Yeah. Sure. Just give me a second.”

\---

They headed back to Goodneighbor because, well, that’s what they had been doing before. It’s a different awkward silence from before, because Hancock it’s shock and isn’t sure what to think. Thankfully, he’s currently decided for the time being he believes Nora. She is his soulmate, after all, and they’re going to check in with Nick and Piper anyways. So what he’s currently doing is looking at the colors of the world because, hey, _he can see fucking colors now and isn’t stuck inside a rotten shack_ . He can’t name most of them, but the world looks _fucking amazing_ and he can finally be actually ecstatic about something for the first time in a while. And he has his _soulmate_ with him. Sure, things might be a little uneasy right now, and they’ve had a rough start, and it definitely will be a bumpy road in the future— but they’re together and will most likely at least have a platonic relationship in the future. So, he’s happy. Can you blame him?

Their luck continues, as they don’t run into anything and reach Goodneighbor without any further incidents. Hancock’s happiness dims a little because he gets hit with the real world again— they’re going to have to tell people they’re soulmates. Who knows how people will react? They’re really only here because it’s the closest place nearby and neither of them are going to be able to walk much longer with the events of the day fresh in their minds. It’s strange, how different his town looks now. Nothing, _nothing_ looks the same. Even the things that were already a shade of black or gray or white somehow seem brighter, more vibrant. He can tell Nora’s enjoying it too, by the look on her face, since they still haven’t talked in awhile. Together, they stand at the entrance to the town for a minute, drinking it all in.

Finally, she pulls him to the side and raises an eyebrow. “So, _Mayor Hancock_ , what’s the plan? Are we going to be upfront and honest or keep this on the down-low?”

He frowns. “What’s the point of tryin’ to keep something like this secret? People are gonna notice how we examine things. Hell, I still have to tell my town I’m taking a vacation. How ‘bout this; you chill with Daisy, tell her what’s up, and in the meantime I’ll round everyone up for my big speech.”

She shrugs. “Yeah, okay.” She starts to turn before he remembers what she said when she was sleeping.

“Hey, before you go, who’s Shaun?”

The tone of indifference she’d been giving off since she said she was from the past is replaced with the way her shoulders stiffen and the icy gaze she gives him. “Where did you hear that name?”

“... Heard it right before I woke you up. You were mumblin’, but I didn’t catch much more than that.”

“He’s my son.”

 _Ah, shit_. “Oh. Thought it might’ve been your husband.”

She said nothing, just walked away from him and left him standing in the middle of town with a pained look on his face.

 _That girl is a roller coaster. But, hey, the ride so far hasn’t been_ that _bad_ .   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanna reblog this mess of a chapter? Do so [here](http://clankitsfanfiction.tumblr.com/post/157726008752/color-me-like-chems-a-hancock-x-female-sole) if you want.

**Author's Note:**

> P.S. I read every single comment, even if it's just 'you could've done worse, I guess.' The only reason I don't respond to them all is because I know some people sort works by comment number. Thank you for giving my fic a read, whether or not you comment!


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